B.H. PORTER & SON LIMITED

💤Zombieactive

05041679 · ltd · incorporated 2004-02-11

Investment thesis

Zombie company — trading but stalled; unlikely mover.

Why interesting: Quiet, steady; could be a succession or carve-out candidate with the right conversation.

Why risky: No growth signal; thin margin for error on price.

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Apr 2025

Net worth

£1.63M

book net assets

Opportunity

82/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: SIC 38110

Sector: Water supply & waste

ALSO REGISTERED FOR

38120SIC 38120
38320SIC 38320
46770SIC 46770

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company with a 78-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 78). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Discharge stale live charges. 1 live charge(s) created 15+ years ago — likely paid but undischarged. Clean register. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (73/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 21.8y

45/100

under pressure

Refinance would be pressure-driven, not opportunity-driven. Expect tighter margins and covenant scrutiny.

· Oldest live charge is 21.8 years old — likely at or near maturity.
· Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
· Distress signals active — lender appetite narrows.

Data confidence

Overall: medium (76/100)

Adequate coverage. AI outputs are reliable for the sections scored high; verify the rest in diligence.

Company profile

address, 4 SIC codes, incorporation date

100

Financials

2 years of iXBRL accounts extracted (YoY deltas available) + narrative notes parsed

Lenders & charges

1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)

Directors & officers

4 officers (2 active, 4 linked, 1 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared

Director network

Network not yet resolved

Filing history

56 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

Opportunity Score

82/100Exceptional

PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional

Strong composite across quality, acquirability, and risk. High-priority target — progress to serious diligence.

Business quality

Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.

Acquirability

Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.

Risk profile

Few red flags.

Signal strength

100

Good data coverage for analysis.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declared

Positive net assets

Net assets £1,632,341

Net assets shrinking

Down £173,120 YoY

Cash YoY

-22%

Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

£476k

↓ 22% YoY

Net Worth

£1.6m

↓ 9.6% YoY

Current Assets

£837k

↓ 15% YoY

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown

Metric	2025-04-30	2024-04-30
Total assets	£1.79M	£2.03M
Current assets	£837.3k	£981.0k
Cash	£475.9k	£613.2k
Debtors	£61.4k	£79.5k
Net assets	£1.63M	£1.81M

Amounts extracted automatically from iXBRL. Fields left blank were not reported or not mapped. Values in GBP unless stated.

🔒Filing-note intelligence

1 signal detected in this company's narrative notes — going-concern language, audit opinion, contingent liabilities, related-party transactions.

Available from the Pro tier upwards.

See pricing →

Recent activity

Last 30 days

filings

Last 90 days

filings

Last 180 days

filings

• 1 confirmation-statement
• 1 accounts

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (23 events)Click to expand

2025-12-23
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-01-30
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-01-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-12-20
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-01-25
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-01-22
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-11-28
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-03-15
📄
capital-name-of-class-of-shares
capital · SH08
2018-12-27
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2017-12-11
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2017-01-27
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2016-03-04
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2016-01-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2015-02-20
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2015-01-14
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2004-08-20
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: Barclays Bank PLC
2004-02-11
🏢
Company incorporated
As B.H. PORTER & SON LIMITED
2004-02-11
➕
SIMMONS, Sarah Lee appointed
secretary
2004-02-11
➕
PORTER, Bernard David appointed
director
2004-02-11
➕
SDG SECRETARIES LIMITED appointed
corporate-nominee-secretary
2004-02-11
➖
SDG SECRETARIES LIMITED resigned
corporate-nominee-secretary
2004-02-11
➕
SDG REGISTRARS LIMITED appointed
corporate-nominee-director
2004-02-11
➖
SDG REGISTRARS LIMITED resigned
corporate-nominee-director

Owner dependency

100/100

Critical — business is the founder

The business appears inseparable from the founder. Acquisition without a serious earn-out or meaningful transition period would likely destroy value.

FACTORS

+Sole director: Only one active director — all governance concentrated on one person.
+Founder name in company name: Company name contains director surname "PORTER" — strong identity link between founder and business.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 22 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 78 — succession pressure is live.

Succession & seller-readiness

100/100

Likely off-market candidate

Strong acquirability signals converging. Worth approaching directly — this is how off-market deals start.

SIGNALS

primaryFounder aged 70+: Senior director is approximately 78 years old. Natural succession window is now.
primarySole active director: Only one director in control. No visible successor — buyers solve the succession problem.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 22 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 22 years old and no new directors in the last 3 years — succession not yet being planned internally.
supportingClean filings + long tenure: Disciplined long-tenure operator — classic lifestyle-business pattern that often sells quietly.

Red flags

clean

No red flags detected from available public data. (This is not a clean bill of health — detailed accounts review still recommended.)

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner · dominant holder ≥75%

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Mr Bernard David Porter Individual · British · DOB 04/1948 · age 78	75–100%	—	75-100% shares	06/04/2016

From Companies House Persons with Significant Control filings. Share ranges are banded per the public PSC regime.

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Peers ranked by estimated value, then turnover, then opportunity score.See all →

🔒Tailored diligence questions

8 specific questions generated from this company's actual signals — liquidity, leverage, director age, charge count, red flags, age-of-company.

Available from the Pro tier upwards.

See pricing →

🔒Advanced scoring suite

Exit-route ranking, improvement thesis, quiet-distress detector, covenant-pressure proxy, extraction monitor, approaching triggers, ownership drift, local cluster, value trap, debt capacity, archetype classification — 48+ scoring modules.

Available from the Pro tier upwards.

See pricing →

Company details

Statusactive

Typeltd

Incorporated2004-02-11

Jurisdictionengland-wales

Primary SIC38110 — SIC 38110

Registered office

29 Oldfield Lane

Wisbech

Cambridgeshire

PE13 2RJ

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2027-01-31

Last made up to: 2025-04-30

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2027-02-15

Last: 2026-02-01

Officers (2 active · 2 resigned)

SIMMONS, Sarah Lee→

secretary · appointed 2004-02-11

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

PORTER, Bernard David→

director · ~78y · appointed 2004-02-11

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

SDG SECRETARIES LIMITED→

corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 2004-02-11 · resigned 2004-02-11

Resigned

SDG REGISTRARS LIMITED→

corporate-nominee-director · appointed 2004-02-11 · resigned 2004-02-11

Resigned

Click a director name to see their full track record across all companies.

Mortgages & charges

Total charges

Outstanding

Active lenders

Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown

			Type	Properties
	outstanding	Barclays Barclays Bank PLC	Debenture	1 property	20/08/2004	—

Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.